GRAND RAPIDS — The dripping of melting snow is a sign of Spring as is the drip of maple syrup! Michigan’s climate serves as a great setup for syrup production, but we’ve seen a wide range of temperatures this winter causing changes to the maple syrup process.
It's the sweet breakfast treat we love is truly farm to table coming straight from local maple sugar trees, but syrup production is very dependent on the weather. Blandford Nature Center is starting to study the weather and maple trees compared to years past with more than 100 maple sugar trees scatter across the grounds. You find their sugar house in the center of it all, cooking down the sap to make maple syrup.
"This day in a previous year would be kind of in the middle of the thick of it. But this year, the sugaring season started quite early. And so we're actually coming towards the close already," said Sarah Bass, Farm Program Specialist.
Typically, sugarbush season runs from late February to the end of March but there was a shift in the season this year. We had the sunniest February in 20 years and landed in the top 15 warmest on record.
"We tapped trees in mid February and the sap had already been flowing for several weeks. So it was warmer earlier which caused that to happen," said Bass.
The back-and-forth temperatures this time of year in our region are key to the sugaring process. This allows for a pressure change to get the sap flowing within the sugar maple trees.
"At nighttime, the tree will freeze and the sap moves up towards the branches of the tree, and in the day when the sun is shining and it gets above 40 degrees, then the sap will flow down the tree down the trunk. That's how we capture that sap that flows down the trunk of the tree," said Bass.
This process stays the same year to year but the timing of it all is what depends on the weather. It's something Blandford Nature Center and students at GVSU are going to study for the next 5 years.
"Where we are measuring the sap flow from trees and how that correlates with temperature, the sugar content of the sap on an average throughout the season, precipitation, sunlight and so measuring all of these things against each other to see how we should address procedures for sap for the flow and tapping of the trees in the whole sugar bush production for years to come," said Bass.
11 trees spaced out in different topography at Blandford Nature Center are in this study as they look into the climate correlation to the maple syrup production. So far the hypothesis of the study is our maple sugar season will start shifting earlier.
If you want to see it for yourself the 53rd annual sugarbush festival is happening at Blandford Nature Center next Saturday the 25th from 10 to 2 where you can see first-hand the maple sugaring process and even have a taste test!
